Michael DePaula

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Michael DePaula

Libertarian Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 6, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

University of Southern California, 2000

Personal

Birthplace

Loma Linda, Calif.

Religion

Secular humanist

Profession

IT specialist

Contact

Campaign website

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Michael DePaula (Libertarian Party) ran for election for Governor of Washington. He lost in the primary on August 6, 2024.

DePaula completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Michael DePaula was born in Loma Linda, California. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California in 2000. His career experience includes working as an IT specialist.

DePaula has been affiliated with the following organizations:

• Global Underwater Explorers
• Firearms Policy Coalition
• Corinthian Yacht Club
• International Horn Society

Elections

2024

See also: Washington gubernatorial election, 2024

General election

General election for Governor of Washington

Bob Ferguson defeated Dave Reichert in the general election for Governor of Washington on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bob Ferguson (D)	55.5	2,143,368
		Dave Reichert (R)	44.3	1,709,818
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	8,202

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,861,388
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Governor of Washington

The following candidates ran in the primary for Governor of Washington on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bob Ferguson (D)	44.9	884,268
✔		Dave Reichert (R)	27.5	541,533
		Semi Bird (R)	10.8	212,692
		Mark Mullet (D)	6.0	119,048
		Leon Lawson (Trump Republican Party)	1.8	35,971
	Submit photo	Jim Daniel (R)	1.5	29,907
	Submit photo	Cassondra Hanson (D)	1.2	24,512
		EL'ona Kearney (D)	1.2	24,374
		Jennifer Hoover (R)	0.8	15,692
		Andre Stackhouse (G)	0.6	11,962
		Don Rivers (D)	0.5	9,453
	Submit photo	Martin Wheeler (R)	0.4	7,676
		Chaytan Inman (D)	0.3	6,427
		Ricky Anthony (D)	0.3	6,226
	Submit photo	Jeff Curry (Independent Party)	0.3	6,068
		Fred Grant (D)	0.3	5,503
		Brian Bogen (No party preference)	0.2	4,530
		A.L. Brown (R)	0.2	4,232
		Michael DePaula (L)	0.2	3,957
		Rosetta Marshall-Williams (Independence Party)	0.2	2,960
		Jim Clark (No party preference)	0.1	2,355
	Submit photo	Edward Cale (D)	0.1	1,975
		Alex Tsimerman (Standup-America Party)	0.1	1,721
		Bill Hirt (R)	0.1	1,720
	Submit photo	Frank Dare (Independent Party)	0.1	1,115
		Alan Makayev (Nonsense Busters Party)	0.1	1,106
		William Combs (Independent Party)	0.1	1,042
	Submit photo	Brad Mjelde (No party preference)	0.1	991
		Ambra Mason (Constitution Party) (Write-in)	0.0	0
	Submit photo	Bobbie Samons (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	0
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	1,347

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,970,363
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Geoff Nelson (Constitution Party)
• Tony Tasmaly (R)
• Robert Arthur Ferguson (D)
• Kriss Schuler (R)
• Eric Nelson (No party preference)
• Robert Benjamin Ferguson (D)
• Reggie Grant (D)
• Laurel Khan (R)
• Daniel Miller (R)
• Hilary Franz (D)
• Raul Garcia (R)
• Tim Ford (R)

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for DePaula in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Michael DePaula completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by DePaula's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Michael graduated from the University of Southern California in 2000 with a degree in music performance on the French horn. While working as a freelance musician and English teacher in both Hawaii and Nagoya (Japan), Michael taught himself computer science and transitioned to IT work in 2005 where he was employed as an independent contractor with a branch of the Department of Defense in Okinawa (Japan). In 2013, he moved to Tokyo to take a position with Facebook (Meta), later transferring with the company to Seattle where he currently leads the Enterprise Engineering Field Operations team for the Pacific Northwest. He enjoys photography, hiking, coffee, writing, and sailing. Michael lives aboard his ketch-rigged sailboat with his wife and three sons in Seattle.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Reduction in Washington's debt burden to position the state favorably for the loomng recession.
• Fortifying citizen self-defense, community readiness, and emergency preparations for potential municipal failures as the national debt crisis widens.
• Privatization of key industries to reduce the state budget per item #1 ensuring service continuity.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I became a student of economics and finance some years ago and still spend literal hours of personal time each day keeping up with the daily changes in not only the nation's banking and finance sectors but their international counterparts' as well. As a Libertarian, ensuring citizens' access to sound money that honors their privacy in daily transactions is paramount as the Federal Reserve looks to take the opposite tack and introduce centralized tools like FedNow and a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) "solutions" to fix their balance sheet woes brought on by decades of loose fiscal policy.

Additionally, one cannot really claim to be a Libertarian without being concerned over the states' slide into ever-increasing authoritarian schemes. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it not only economic weakness, but an accompanying wave of free speech concerns and a general erosion of what used to be considered core constitutional rights--free assembly, medical autonomy, and their associated rights of commerce and movement.

The core of my administration will center around acting as a check on legislative overstep whether it comes from a Democratic or Republican-led legislative body, ensuring citizens' rights are not only NOT whittled away, but that they are strengthened as the country enters a period of crisis.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I have a variety of role models, one for each goal I find myself pursuing. Politically speaking, I developed a profound respect for Justin Amash, the US Representative from Michigan's 3rd district who served from 2011-2021. His long-form podcast, The Justin Amash Podcast, is phenomenal.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

"Anatomy of The State" by Murray N. Rothbard

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Transparency, honesty, and a sense of obligation to not follow the crowd.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I believe being a Generalist--someone who has experience across a wide variety of skills, professions, and interests--has served me well in my adult life. I obsess over details with each "rabbit hole" I jump into, but the Albert Einstein quote resonates with me nonetheless: "The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know." This leads to a desire to "collect" a handful of experts who claim to know and studying their opinions for a richer life experience.

And while I think those working in government can be served well by having a background in law or political science, I think the common tactic of going with the career politician who traditionally have had these backgrounds has actually served us poorly in the long run. We could use more everyday men and woman with passion running for office and less "professional politicians".

Beyond these, I think dogged determinism, empathy, justice, and humility all have a part to play in a good leader.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

1. To defend the state constitution,

2. To veto/sign bills into law, as appropriate,
3. To make political appointments as required by the state constitution,
4. To grant pardons, as appropriate,
5. To monitor the actions of state officers,

6. To act as commander-in-chief to the state military

What legacy would you like to leave?

I hold no aspirations for a life of politics and believe the best politicians view their time as public servants to be one of brevity and high impact. For my part, I would like people to look back at my time in office and point to how I led us through the recession and made us financially better off, not only as a state, but individually than we started, all while restoring our individual liberties.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I recall the day the Challenger space shuttle exploded. I was home sick from school and had the TV on when the news aired the footage of the liftoff and eventual demise of the flight. Being interested in space (as most kids of the 80s were), I had one of those signed replica images of the Challenger crew on my nightstand and the loss stuck with me for years.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Having long been interested in Japan from a young age, I took an interview with a Japanese publisher (Chuoh Publishing) based in Nagoya to teach English at one of their local schools during my senior year at USC and got offered the job. It set my mind at ease knowing I could explore Japan while earning a paycheck and building my network in the local music scene. I ended up being offered the principal horn position for a local volunteer orchestra--the Nagoya Sinfonia--while still at Chuoh Publishing.

What is your favorite book? Why?

"Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy" by Thomas Sowell

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Paul Atreides from Dune.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

"The River" by Rich Mullins

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I have always been a perfectionist and struggled for years with the act of delegation which I often perceived as affecting the ideal outcomes I'd envisioned for a project or goal.

A governor is the top executive authority in his or her state. What does that mean do you?

Americans of the past few decades tend to think of politicians as not only celebrities, but quasi-rulers even if, deep down, they know they're not (or certainly not supposed to be). Part of the letdown in modern politics stems, I think, from a lack of appreciation as to their specific function and the limits of the office itself. To be sure, the trend toward obfuscation, closed-door hearings and meetings, etc. can lead constituents to assign bad motives to those they elect when they don't succeed at passing whatever pet legislation they elected them to pass.

As it pertains to being governor (and where I think I stand out from the other candidates), Washington desperately needs an executive who acts as a check against the very one-way direction our legislature has taken us. Politically, the nation has started to believe in "all or nothing" government, where we believe we can only succeed when our party controls two or more of the branches, but this is not only untrue, it's dangerous. Any good advisor will tell you it's of paramount importance to get second opinions, to weigh alternative viewpoints when making monumental decisions, and to proceed cautiously. At this particular stage, Washington needs someone who can say "no" to what has become the excess in Olympia; someone who is not beholden to either the Democratic or the Republican parties; someone who believes that the people, clawing back and retaining their property and civil rights takes precedence over the next new spending program as the economy worsens.

Governors have many responsibilities, which vary from state to state. Which of those do you personally consider the most important in your state?

The governor's veto power.

Different states require governors to have different degrees of responsibility for the state budgeting process. If it were your choice, what do you believe is the appropriate degree of gubernatorial involvement with this process in your state?

Per the law, the Governor recommends a budget to the Legislature consistent with executive policy priorities. Appropriation bills, like other legislation, are subject to gubernatorial veto authority and may be rejected in part or in their entirety within a defined number of days after legislative passage. After a budget is enacted, the Governor’s general administrative duties include monitoring agency expenditures and helping to implement legislative policy directives.

In most states, governors have the power to make line-item vetoes. If that is true in your state, what would be your philosophy for how and when to use this power?

With every bill that comes to my desk, I will ask two questions: 1) Does this violate or muddy the express powers delegated to the legislature by the state constitution? And if "no", 2) Does this restore power to the citizens to make decisions for themselves as makes sense in their lives and for their situations or does it empower the state to choose on their behalf?

If the governor's office in your state does not have the line-item veto power, do you believe it should? Why or why not?

N/A

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

A consequence of single-party governments across legislative and executive branches is often law based on popular desires at the expense of at least half of the state whose party is not in power. This creates a pendulum effect whose ultimate victims are the people themselves forever entrenched in "voting harder" the next election. Contrasted with this is the Libertarian philosophy of minimal government where the legislative and executive branches core responsibilities are to maintain the civil and property rights of the people and pass legislation that does not touch on either or, at the very least, strengthens them.

Insofar as a Libertarian governor works with a legislature of a different party, s/he must act as a defense of the people and their rights even if that means a stalemate, since abrogation of the stalemate would mean a loss to the people. In time, the hope is that the legislature would learn to restrain their attempts at impoverishing their constituents lest they retire office with no achievements to boast over.

What do you love most about your state?

I grew up in both Caliornia and Maine and recall vividly the first time I visited Washington. It reminded me much of Maine but everything was just bigger and at a grander scale. The ocean, mountains, hills, and lakes...growing up hiking and camping made me appreciate all Washington has to offer. These days Portland, Maine might be most analogous to Spokane or Seattle, but Washington on the whole really shines when it comes to favorable tax laws and the sheer variety of industries and diversity of people here. I really hope we can improve upon these and not lose ground over the coming decade with all the challenges we face.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Washington has seen a large number of interstate migration, notably from those leaving California heading north, but at the same time, we are seeing too many of our friends and family leave due to the increasingly unbearable cost of living and criminal justice decisions that have taken root up and down the West Coast. Couple that with loss of rights when it comes to personal defense and protection of property and I anticipate we'll see more businesses forced to close, taking with them so many of the jobs that made Washington attractive for so many in the first place. Once this cycle continues, infrastructure collapse and the state's budget will turn into very real and tangible problems very quickly.

Tell us your favorite joke.

"RIP, boiling water. You will be mist."

Under what circumstances should the governor of your state be able to use emergency powers?

Three clear scenarios stand out: 1) to restore constitutional rights that were abridged by the legislature, 2) to facilitate rescue of any citizen in times of state crisis (earthquake, flood, or fire), and 3) to counteract a overreach of the federal government or one of her agencies.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Libertarian Party of Washington (pending interviews in early 2024)

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Michael DePaula campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Governor of Washington	Lost primary	$2,653	$2,655
Grand total			$2,653	$2,655
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

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